Eurobarometer 77.1 (2012)

Since the early 1970s the European Commission´s Standard & Special Eurobarometer are regularly monitoring the public opinion in the European Union member countries. Principal investigators are the Directorate-General Communication and on occasion other departments of the European Commission or the European Parliament. Over time, candidate and accession countries were included in the Standard Eurobarometer Series. Selected questions or modules may not have been surveyed in each sample. Please consult the basic questionnaire for more information on country filter instructions or other questionnaire routing filters. In this study the following modules are included: 1. Public attitudes towards robots, 2. Civil protection within the European Union, 3. Humanitarian aid, 4. Public health / smoking habits, 5. Multilingualism.

Topics: 1. Public attitudes towards robots: interest in science and technology; personal representation of a robot (image rating); use robots at home or at work; image of robots; attitudes towards robots (scale: good for society, destroy jobs, do heavy or dangerous jobs, technology that requires careful handling, the widespread use of robots can boost job opportunities in the EU); preferred areas of application for robots; areas from which robots should be banned; feelings about selected applications of robots (surgery on people, walking the dog, assistance at work, caring for children and elderly parents); expected point in time when robots do house work.

2. Civil protection within the European Union: concern about natural disasters or man-made disasters (oil spills, terrorism, armed conflicts); advocacy of obligation for EU member states to establish disaster management plans; Knowledge of EU as a coordinating body for civil protection in Europe and in other regions; greater effectiveness in dealing with disasters through coordinated EU action; not all countries have adequate resources for disaster management; Need for an EU policy on civil protection; more cost-effective concentration of resources for civil protection in the EU; claim for a universal humanitarian intervention of experts and institutions of the EU in natural disasters; self-rated knowledge of EU activities in civil protection; preferred sources of information about the civil defense policy of the EU.

3. Humanitarian aid: knowledge of humanitarian aid by the EU; importance of financial support for humanitarian aid by the EU; greater effectiveness of humanitarian aid coordination by the European Commission or by each individual member state; attitude towards EU humanitarian aid despite the economic crisis; self-rated knowledge of humanitarian activities of the EU and preferred sources of information; attitudes towards establishment a ´European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps´.

4. Public health / smoking habits: smoking status; awareness of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes); health hazards of electronic cigarettes; frequency of smoking (water pipe, oral tobacco, electronic cigarettes, and smokeless cigarettes); smokers or former smokers were asked: age at starting smoking or at the start of regular smoking and reasons for smoking; frequency of consumption of boxed or hand-rolled cigarettes, cigars and pipe; average daily cigarette consumption; importance of selected criteria for choosing the brand of cigarettes (price, packaging, tobacco flavor, special brand, specific flavors such as menthol, levels of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide); ask all: presence of smokers when you visit a bar or restaurant; frequency of passive smoking at the workplace; only smokers ware asked: Trying to quit smoking; used methods for smoking cessation; supporting factors for the decision to quit smoking; purchase of tobacco products: trivializing characteristics of cigarette brands; smokers or former smokers were asked: personal shopping places for tobacco products; purchase of tobacco products from vending machines; purchase of tobacco products abroad; reasons for buying abroad; proportion of tobacco products bought abroad from annual tobacco consumption; attitudes towards: a ban of tobacco advertising in shops, removal of tobacco products from the visible sales area, prohibition of sale of tobacco products on the Internet and through vending machines, health warnings on packages of tobacco products, prohibition of flavors that make tobacco products more attractive, prohibition of colors, logos and advertising elements on packaging, tax increases on tobacco products security features on packages to limit sales of smuggled or counterfeit products; Impact of health warnings on tobacco packaging to the personal smoking behavior (only smokers or former smokers); health warnings on tobacco packaging protect young people from smoking.

5. Multilingualism: most useful languages for personal development and for the future of children; most important advantages of language skills; experience of language acquisition during last 2 years; personally used methods and devices for learning a foreign language; most effective method; reasons not to learn a foreign language; factors increasing personal willingness to learn a foreign language; claim for a single language for European institutions; linguistic requirements for all EU citizens: a common language, knowledge of one or more foreign languages besides the mother tongue; preference for foreign films and programs with subtitles; equal treatment of all languages spoken in the EU languages; improving language skills should be a policy priority; mother tongue; foreign languages spoken and self-rated proficiency; frequency of use of language skills and scope; knowledge of foreign languages for the reception of messages, newspaper and online communication; importance of selected areas of application for the translation (personal daily life, information on worldwide events, leisure activities and movies, medical leaflets, authorities access, formation, job search).

Demography: nationality, family situation; age at end of education; sex; age; occupation; professional position; degree of urbanization; number of persons in the household aged 15 years; number of children in household less 10 years and 10 to 14 years; own a mobile phone and fixed (landline) phone; have durable goods (entertainment electronics, Internet connection, have a car, a flat/a house have finished paying for or still paying for; financial difficulties last year; self-rated social position (scale); Internet use (at home or at work).

Also encoded was: date of interview; interview start; interview; presence of third parties during the interview; cooperation of respondent.